Hold, please.

After our visa appointment in San Francisco and some breakfast, we headed back to the airport. Joe flew back to Denver and I went on to L.A. to see family there.

I texted our realtor in Portugal and asked if he would be willing to be our reference and he responded that he would be glad to. It’s a good thing that he agreed to help us, once again, since we don’t know anyone else over there! Thank you, Rui Castro! You are our hero!

It was fun to catch up with friends and family and be reminded of why I wouldn’t want to live in L.A. again. An hour to get from the west side to the valley during rush hour. Really, it takes an hour to get just about anywhere in a car in L.A. Pass on that action. At least, the weather was nice. The wining and dining were great, and it was a nice distraction from knowing that we would be stuck in the US for at least another probably eight weeks.

I was warned about the snail’s pace of government bureaucracy in Portugal but when I returned to Denver and Fedexed the last documents to the consulate, I tried to email them as well. All emails have been returned as undeliverable. There is a phone number on the website that states that the Portuguese consulate is currently not taking phone calls or returning messages. There was an “sos” email to which I sent a note saying that I had fedexed documents to them and would they please confirm receipt of said documents. I received a reply that my email was received and nothing else. Ugh! They did warn us, but the complete lack of communication is disconcerting, to say the least!

On the heels of all this, a hurricane hit Portugal on October 13th. The first one of this magnitude to hit in 176 years! Awesome. Luckily, by the time it hit landfall, hurricane Leslie was downgraded to a tropical depression and did the most damage to Lisbon with a beach side restaurant destroyed and the roof of a stadium blown off. I texted our fairy Godfather, Rui and he replied that Porto was OK, just a lot of wind and rain. So, our place is vacant but still standing. Hallelujah. Thank God for small favors!

So, now we wait. The Portuguese consulate has our passports and I guess that’s about all we can do. That and cross our fingers and pray to God! I’m also guessing that it will be December before we get our visas, at the rate we’re going. And I wanted to be out of here before last summer! Ha ha. Now it looks like we will have to endure half the winter in BFE, Denver, Colorado, USA.

Here’s to hoping for a mild one courtesy of El Nino.

Our gracious host/landlord is hosting Thanksgiving and has invited us, which is so nice and, obviously we will attend, but have I mentioned how much I hate turkey? Why do Americans think it is so great? Oh, never mind. Americans love a lot of things that I don’t care for,

Grilled cod dinner at Churrasqueira Kinay in Porto.

which is one of the many reasons we have got to get out of here! Holding. And dreaming of Portuguese food!

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Published by Lisa Graziano CSW, CSE

I have worked in wine and spirits for the past ten years. I am Certified Specialist of Wine and Spirits Educator through the Society of Wine Educators and am certified to teach English as a second language. I live in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal.
View all posts by Lisa Graziano CSW, CSE